POLICE in Hunan Province have seized 360,000 yuan (US$57,000) in high-quality counterfeit 100-yuan notes.

    Police in Changsha, the provincial capital, said the fake notes, starting with serial numbers of OG27 and B3H3, were copies of the 2005-edition bank notes, a report on local news Web site hunan.voc.com.cn said Tuesday.

    A robber surnamed Liu, in exchange for lenient punishment, tipped off police April 26 that his friend, surnamed Nie, was going to sell bogus bank notes worth 200,000 yuan.

    Police surrounded the hotel where Nie was about to make the deals, arrested the 35-year-old man in his room and confiscated 200,000 yuan worth of bogus bank notes. Another 160,000 yuan of fake notes was seized in Nie’s rented house, the report said. A rich boss who showed up to buy the 200,000 yuan of fake notes was later seized.

    Both Liu and Nie have criminal records and met each other in prison. After they were released, Nie called Liu to introduce clients to him.

    The trio, including the unnamed boss, were taken into custody and the police investigation is ongoing.

    In 2010, Hunan authorities arrested four men for producing fake notes with a total face value of 210 million yuan, which was described as the biggest counterfeit bank note ring in the province’s history.

    (SD-Agencies)